Rekindled memories: French teen contacts WWII vet who crashed during war

By Chris Lavender / Times-News

Published: Friday, February 8, 2013 at 06:21 PM.

Berthe asked Cheek what his life had been like since the end of the war and mentioned he would like to visit North Carolina some day.

“Thank you for your service during the war,” Berthe said. “France truly owes its current freedom to men like you.”

Cheek replied with a letter providing Berthe with more information about the crash and his experiences as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Poland. Cheek arrived at the prison camp a few weeks after “The Great Escape” occurred on March 24, 1944 when 76 allied POWs escaped through a tunnel at Stalag Luft III. All but three escaped prisoners were recaptured. Hitler had 50 of the recaptured prisoners executed. The event was depicted in a popular movie starring James Garner and Steve McQueen.

The camp housed nearly 11,000 prisoners while Cheek stayed there.

“We didn’t have as much food as we wanted,” Cheek said. “There was always an uncertainty to it all. We knew that Hitler really wanted us all dead.”

The French newspaper La Voix Du Nord serving the Calais region published a story on June 3, 2012 about Cheek’s and Berthe’s new friendship. Berthe used a metal detector at the crash scene and recovered a few remaining artifacts.

Cheek’s time at Stalag Luft III prison camp lasted for about 10 months before he was marched with the other prisoners westward in January 1945 to avoid the advancing Russian army lines. The march ended at another prison camp, Stalag VIIA near Munich. Stalag VIIA was liberated by American forces on April 29, 1945. Cheek eventually returned to North Carolina to rebuild his life.

Paul Cheek was surprised when he opened a letter from a French teenager last year asking him about what happened to his flight crew on a B-17 Flying Fortress in March 1944.

Cheek served as the bomber plane’s navigator during World War II as a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps’ 388th Bomber Group. The crew was flying toward Frankfurt, Germany to bomb a propeller factory. Cheek, who was 24, was a long way from his Eli Whitney home.

Cheek’s plane had a 10-member crew. They had flown out of Knettishall, England as part of the 562nd squadron. It was the crew’s second bombing mission over Germany.

“We were still a green crew and flew whatever plane was available,” Cheek said.

Cheek’s second bombing mission would lead to his capture in France and the death of two of his crewmates. Shortly after take-off from England, Cheek said two of his B-17’s engines began to fail and an oil line busted on one engine, sending oil flying back over a wing. The crew tried to keep in formation but was forced to turn around because of the condition of the engines. On its way back over France, Cheek said the plane salvoed its incendiary bombs in a river and removed the plane’s loose armor plating to lighten the load.

Shortly thereafter, Cheek said his crew began to receive small arms fire from German forces as the plane flew over Calais, France.

“We would see a haystack and see blips of fire coming from them,” Cheek said. “They used all sorts of camouflage.”

The plane was then struck by an artillery shell, causing it to burst into flames and killing crew members John Fisher of Buffalo, N.Y. and A.E. Thompson of Texas.

Cheek said after the plane crash landed in a farm field, the eight surviving crew members were all stunned by what had just happened. They darted across a road and through a tree line before they were captured by German forces. The German officer in charge of the detail forced Cheek and the others back in front of the plane’s wreckage to take their picture in front of the plane.

“I think he thought that was a feather in his cap,” Cheek said. “I’ve always wondered whatever happened to that photo.”

What happened in that field nearly 70 years ago was rediscovered by a French teenager living in Le Parcq in the Calais Region. Antoine Berthe, 16, sent a letter to Cheek in January 2012 asking him about what happened to him when the plane crashed in 1944.

Berthe explained to Cheek that he was researching the crash. Berthe’s great-grandfather told him stories when he was a boy about the B-17’s crash. Berthe later spoke with the former mayor of Hernicourt, who provided him with more information.

Berthe learned that the Catteau family owned the field where the crash occurred and they had taken pictures of the site in 1944 just days after the incident occurred. Berthe sent Cheek copies of the crash scene pictures shot in 1944 showing the severely damaged plane along with pictures of the present day scene where the plane once rested.

Berthe was able to find Cheek through identifying the number on the plane’s tail based on the pictures. Berthe’s Jan. 7, 2012 letter stated, “My grandparents live in a small village called Hernicourt. After some research, I realized that a B-17 plane crashed there on March 20, 1944. I did some research so as to have testimonies from people of the village. I met one person and that person was the field owner’s son where you had your plane landed.”

Berthe asked Cheek what his life had been like since the end of the war and mentioned he would like to visit North Carolina some day.

“Thank you for your service during the war,” Berthe said. “France truly owes its current freedom to men like you.”

Cheek replied with a letter providing Berthe with more information about the crash and his experiences as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Poland. Cheek arrived at the prison camp a few weeks after “The Great Escape” occurred on March 24, 1944 when 76 allied POWs escaped through a tunnel at Stalag Luft III. All but three escaped prisoners were recaptured. Hitler had 50 of the recaptured prisoners executed. The event was depicted in a popular movie starring James Garner and Steve McQueen.

The camp housed nearly 11,000 prisoners while Cheek stayed there.

“We didn’t have as much food as we wanted,” Cheek said. “There was always an uncertainty to it all. We knew that Hitler really wanted us all dead.”

The French newspaper La Voix Du Nord serving the Calais region published a story on June 3, 2012 about Cheek’s and Berthe’s new friendship. Berthe used a metal detector at the crash scene and recovered a few remaining artifacts.

Cheek’s time at Stalag Luft III prison camp lasted for about 10 months before he was marched with the other prisoners westward in January 1945 to avoid the advancing Russian army lines. The march ended at another prison camp, Stalag VIIA near Munich. Stalag VIIA was liberated by American forces on April 29, 1945. Cheek eventually returned to North Carolina to rebuild his life.

Now 94, Cheek lives in Elon. He studied chemistry in graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill after the war and taught chemistry at Elon College for 35 years. He retired in 1986.

Most of the men he served with on the B-17 have since died. He kept in touch with a few of his former crew members through the years. Cheek’s thoughts drifted back this week to Fisher and Thompson, who were killed on the plane before it crashed.

Unfortunately, Cheek said, the surviving crew members were unable to recover their friends’ remains because of the fire after the crash. Years later, Fisher’s father discovered where his son’s remains were buried in France and was able to return them home to America.